Saint-Laurent
by Immortal x Snow
Summary: "In the first light of dawn, they walk along the rushing St. Lawrence together, and Canada has never felt so alive than he does now with this man at his side, between him and the water." France and Canada's shared history in 50 sentences.


First of all, please excuse my rough and not very lyrical translation of the French lyrics below.

You'll see a gradual arc over the course of these sentences. They go in historical order, beginning with the arrival of France in Quebec, through the Seven Years War, the Napoleonic Wars (including the War of 1812), the Era of Good Feelings, WWI and WWII, the diplomatic tensions between France and Canada in the 1970s, until contemporary times.

Enjoy, and be sure to read The Goliath Beetle's 50 sentences for the German brothers and France and Canada, too.

* * *

 _Et comme tu vois c'est bien la fin_ _  
_ _Je dois traverser l'océan demain matin_ _  
_ _De tes bras, je m'arracherai tout doucement_ _  
_ _Et c'est la réalité qui m'attend_ _  
_

(And as you see, it is indeed the end.

I must cross the ocean tomorrow morning.

I will tear myself out of your arms so sweetly.

Reality awaits me.)

" _Place de la République," Coeur de Pirate_

* * *

 **Walking**

In the first light of dawn, they walk along the rushing St. Lawrence together, and Canada has never felt so alive than he does now with this man at his side, between him and the water.

 **Waltz**

France teaches Canada to dance, of course; not teaching his new charge the ways of a gentleman would be tantamount to abandonment in his eyes.

 **Wishes**

His father tucks him in when he thinks Canada's asleep, and as the boy burrows deeper into his soft blankets and snuggles into his pillow, he knows there's nothing else in the world he wants.

 **Wonder**

And then the next night they're huddled together in front of the fire, staring up at the stars and talking about Paris and its shimmering cathedrals and the glow of the Seine at twilight and he can't believe he's here, sitting next to his Papa, and it's always been like this, forever this warm and happy and amazing, and he knows it'll never change.

 **Worry**

It's always just been a silly traditional rivalry between him and England, but now that he has this kind of a stake in the game, he's not sure he likes the rush of their battles anymore.

 **Whimsy**

The morning before the battle on the Plains of Abraham, Canada runs up to France with a flower he'd picked from the edge of the settlement and tells him everything will be fine—he'd said _La Citadelle_ couldn't fall, right?

 **Waste/Wasteland**

They're on the run the same day.

 **Whiskey and rum**

France drinks a little when he loses Canada to England.

 **War**

Somehow, it doesn't end when France has to give over Canada and cross the ocean back home, because then they're on the battlefield again twenty years later, on opposing sides this time.

 **Weddings**

When Canada goes to a royal one with England, he remembers to hold his arm at the perfect angle during the waltz, neither too high nor too low, just as France had taught him.

 **Birthday**

It's halfway through dessert during his birthday dinner with England that Canada receives a small parcel—it has no name written on it, but it doesn't need one—with an arrangement of chocolates from Normandy inside.

 **Blessing**

France prays to Jeanne every morning when he wakes up and every night before he goes to bed, and he never once forgets to ask her to watch over his son.

 **Bias**

This isn't like him, Canada thinks as England explains to him his plans for holding off Napoleon at sea, this isn't like my Papa.

 **Burning**

And then Canada and England are fighting their brother again, and another war has broken out, and Canada just doesn't know when it's all going to end.

 **Breathing**

They've seen each other a few times since the separation (mostly from across battlefields), but it's only when they see each other again in Belgium following the signing of the Treaty of Ghent that Canada cries.

 **Breaking**

France cries, too, maybe even more than Canada does.

 **Belief**

Neither can quite trace when it began nor how it developed, but both Canada and France can see their little family coalescing once more, as unlikely as this thaw had seemed only months ago.

 **Balloon**

He mumbles that he's not a child anymore when France buys him a balloon at the World Fair in Paris, but he still carries it around all day.

 **Balcony**

Staring out at his capital city from the second floor of the brand-new Eiffel Tower, France puts an arm around his son's shoulders and stops trying to find the perfect words, because he knows they won't come, and he's okay with that.

 **Bane**

Canada actually laughs when France and England declare war on Germany: he hadn't believed that all this could be happening yet again.

 **Quiet**

It definitely isn't all quiet on the Western Front when France and Canada are on the lookout together, with both making jokes (if only half-hearted ones) to lift the misery of the cold night air and the fear that lingers in the fog in no-man's-land.

 **Quirks**

When he gets bored, he watches France smoke and marvels at how he keeps his lips curled around his cigarette for exactly three seconds and then breathes out the ghostly smoke for exactly three more.

 **Question**

The funny thing about France running up to him and screaming, "Canada, Matthew, can you hear me?" right after he stumbles back from holding the line all night at Ypres is that he's not gone deaf: he's gone blind.

 **Quarrel**

France and England spend hours screaming at each other at Canada's bedside, with England blaming France for running from the battle and France swearing he'd never leave his son behind.

 **Quitting**

France tries to get Canada to spend some time away from the battlefield once his eyes have healed, but Canada just smiles and says he'd never leave his father behind.

 **Jump**

He's not sure what to think when all the names are on the Statute of Westminster, but then he sees France's face and realizes just how over the moon he is.

 **Jester**

And then the world's cruel joke has reached the punch line, and next thing Canada knows, he's left his father on the beaches of Dunkirk.

 **Jousting**

He's fighting, fighting, fighting, pushing, shoving, sprinting, just trying to find France somewhere, anywhere, on the beaches of Normandy.

 **Jewel**

Even in their cloudiness and confusion, France's eyes are still sapphire blue.

 **Just**

The world will never be fair as long as they still have to fight wars, Canada thinks, but at least they're all together now in more or less one piece.

 **Smirk**

France calls England's eyebrows an insult to health inspectors; England retorts that France's beard is an insult to the world; Canada smirks while walking behind both of them at how little has changed in two hundred years.

 **Sorrow**

When he can't sleep on the worst nights of the October Crisis, Canada wants to mutter to himself in French and pretend France is there, but he can't shake the feeling that's half of what caused this mess.

 **Stupidity**

"This is hands-down the stupidest thing you've ever done," Canada says, fists and teeth clenched, as France splutters and stammers to explain his recent "Quebec Mafia" speech.

 **Sarcasm**

"I guess you've forgotten that you sort of raised me as a French-speaking country and thought maybe I wouldn't care that you only invited Quebec and not all of me to join _la Francophonie_ —right, Francis?"

 **Sordid**

"You don't know what you're doing, Matthew; you're playing dirty in things you don't understand," France says only hours after Trudeau threatens cutting off diplomatic ties with his government.

 **Soliloquy**

It takes three words from Canada—let's stop, please—for the _Francophonie_ fiasco to start cooling down.

 **Sojourn**

They're going for a walk together along the St. Lawrence and talking about how to resolve the diplomatic tensions when France puts a hand on Canada's shoulder, stops him, and says, "You're really not a kid anymore, are you?"

 **Share**

They learn to work together again, and while they don't agree on everything—no interference, but no indifference, after all—they learn to get over it.

 **Solitary**

They say you're a good parent if your kids someday don't need you anymore, but France knows they'll all continue to need each other: that's just how nations work.

 **Nowhere**

"Canada, you simply must help me: I'm locked out with my room key nowhere to be found, I'm only wearing a towel, and the meeting starts in five minutes and England said he'd tell everyone about that one time with the exploding whipped cream if I'm late to another meeting—"

 **Neutral**

These days, instead of feeling obligated to pick a side, Canada and America can just laugh at England and France's squabbles.

 **Nuance**

Even if he has realized Canada isn't a child but an independent nation, France still can't help licking his thumb and wiping off the drops of maple syrup that cling to the very corner of his son's mouth after breakfast.

 **Near**

The Montreal-Paris route isn't one of the busiest in the world for no reason.

 **Natural**

It's not just their history, England comments to himself while watching them one day, but also their personalities that make France and Canada's relationship so strong: they just go together, and he can't put it any other way.

 **Horizon**

Canada likes to sleep in, but whenever he's staying with France, he'll get up to watch the sun rise over Paris at least once (or he'll try to, at least).

 **Valiant**

France sometimes tries to tell Canada stories of his medieval childhood when he gets a little drunk, but they never end with an impressed Matthew but one laughing and demanding to know whether France really wrote all those goofy troubadour songs about unicorns.

 **Virtuous**

"Of course I did," France says, "and I'll have you know they were beautiful and full of chivalric love and romance and virtue, too."

 **Victory**

There will be wars and crises and problems in the years to come, Canada knows…

 **Defeat**

…But whether they're victorious or in defeat, France thinks, they'll at least have each other for strength, for comfort, for security.

* * *

Some historical notes/glossary:

The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was the decisive battle in ending the siege of Quebec City during the Seven Years War (I think this is the battle they're referencing when Chibicanada is upset about a battle lasting only half an hour or something). It was a major British victory. _La Citedelle_ refers to the fortifications surrounding the city.

The Second Battle of Ypres took place in WWI. It is notable for a number of reasons: it marks the first use of poison gas (chlorine) by the German army, it was the first time a former colonial force defeated a European power on European soil (the defeat of the Germans at the hands of the Canadians, who were the only force that managed to hold the line), and it resulted in the loss of one out of every three Canadian troops. Finally, it inspired the poem "In Flanders Fields." Plus it was one of the many badass things Canadians did in the war. And yes, many French troops ran from the battle (chlorine gas is not nice to the human body). Did France? I left it ambiguous.

The Statute of Westminster gave Canada more or less legislative independence from the UK.

Ah, yes, the tensions over Quebec. Ready for the Sparknotes version? Basically, in the mid-20th century, Quebecois started really wanting independence or at least sovereignty. Some groups (the FLQ) turned to terrorism, resulting in the October Crisis. France decided to intervene (because French speakers need to stick together, _n'est-ce pas_?). This made the Canadian government angry. Things got worse when _la Francophonie_ , an international organization for French-speaking countries, was founded, and the French tried to invite only Quebec, and not all of Canada. France and Canada began bribing countries sponsoring the official meetings of _la Francophonie_. Trudeau (Canadian prime minister) threatened to cut off diplomatic relations.

And then things settled down. France adopted a deliberately ambiguous policy of "neither indifference nor interference" toward Quebec. Quebec Liberals called for normalization of Canada-France relations. Things aren't perfect now, but at least Canada and France have reached some sort of common ground.


End file.
